


Welcome

by Jamiebb



Category: Faerie Folklore
Genre: Adventure, Bittersweet Ending, FTM, Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, Folklore, Happy Ending, Sad, Trans Male Character, cryptid, faerie circle, fairy circle, myth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25567126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jamiebb/pseuds/Jamiebb
Summary: An exhausted young man runs away to the heart of the woods. He steps into a fairy circle with one request, the hospitality of a place to rest from this world.Short piece that can become longer if anyone takes interest in the boys story.





	Welcome

It had been hours. Where the sun had dappled the forest floor through the trees, there was now deep gray, like clouds had rolled in. The youth plodded slowly onward, even as the path began to grow fainter and fainter. Once gravel, then a dirt path, it was now barely a path at all, more a game trail. One foot in front of another, in front of another, in front of another, tired but necessary steps. As the trail fades to nothing, branches snatch at scraps of clothing but his methodical trudging propels him slowly forward. He never wavers, never speeds up, too exhausted to do anything but continue as he has for hours. The woods are inky black around him when he finally stops. He wipes his brow and steadies himself, breathing deeply, the scent of dirt and flowers mingle with the humidity of oncoming rain. He holds his hand to his chest and takes a final deep breath, then turns, determined, and pushes back into the thick plant growth, fighting through bushes and brambles and then...nothing.

He steps into a clearing. Perfectly circular and devoid of anything but a cover of clover on the ground. Above him hangs a perfect, pale moon. He breathes in the forest again and lets out a deep sigh, then waits. The moon does not move, no wind ruffles the clover under his bare and aching feet. All is still.

“Just what do you think you’re doing here?” 

His spine shivers, jolted by a whisper impossibly close in his ear. He does not turn. “I have come to the fairy circle.” He replies, alert enough now to take the softness of exhaustion from his voice and posture. He steels himself as a hand ghosts across his shoulders.

“I do not know you, you have arrived unannounced to my hospitality.” The whisper is as soft, but now it has the grinning teeth of a bear trap, waiting to crush him.

“And for that I have no excuse. But I also have nowhere else to go. I thank your hospitality.” Exhaustion softens him again. 

“What hospitality do you require?” the whisper turns cold, its trap un-sprung.

“I have nowhere, and no one. I ask the hospitality of a place to rest..” an unsaid please in the tired pause between breaths.

In his ear again, soft as breathing, “Do you understand what you are asking? To take you in I must know who you are.”

He is still, then the weight of his exhaustion washes him over, “I understand. I can make myself known to you.”

A moment's silence, then the whisper returned, “What is your name, traveler?” it sounded almost sad. There is less joy in prey that lays itself down before the trap.

“My name is Gawain. Will you grant me hospitality?” flat, not bothering to hope or plead.

Mist coalesced before him, taking the shape of something tall and very thin. The body of gray mist moved and a hand laid against his shoulder again. “Gawain.” The whisper rolled the name in its mouth as it said it, then stopped in surprise as it held none of the power it had when the boy said it. “How did you get this name?” 

The exhausting retreated again, “I wrought it myself. I know myself well enough to be known in turn.” He tensed, waiting for retaliation or rejection from the being of mist. But it simply waited, considering this.

“Tell me again what you want, Gawain.”

“A place to be, just somewhere for my body to rest.” misty eyes look up into the gray figure.

A very gentle whisper in his ear, “Then you have found your place.” A misty arm draped around his shoulder and escorted him to the center of the clearing. Had anyone else been present they would have seen two beings cloaked in mist disappear through the thin air of the clearing, neither shape looking quite human as they left.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this at 2 am, cause I too am trans and want to disappear into the woods sometimes. If I get one Kudos I  
> ll write another chapter to fill in some of Gawain's story. Feedback and comments appreciated, even if the comment is just "mood". Thanks for reading!


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